


Billy Hargrove's Week-Long Headache

by desperat



Series: Dick Harrington Don't Know What He's Doing [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Billy Hargrove Needs a Hug, Billy Hargrove-centric, Can be read as stand alone, Homophobic Language, Important Conversations, Kissing, M/M, Minor Violence, Neil Hargrove's A+ Parenting, Post-Canon, Slurs, Supportive Billy Hargrove, Trauma, mention of blowjob
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:35:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27702854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperat/pseuds/desperat
Summary: It's been four days since Steve's father came home, and he's not going to leave for another six. Steve's mostly at work, so Billy's trapped in the house with Mr. Harrington. He's slowly losing his mind, and can't even go for a ride, since Neil still keeping the Camaro hostage.The more Richard proves he's decent man, the more Billy feels like it's all a trap.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Series: Dick Harrington Don't Know What He's Doing [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024747
Comments: 12
Kudos: 137





	Billy Hargrove's Week-Long Headache

**Author's Note:**

> ok, wow, so that's third day in row as I'm posting something in these series. don't get used to it, I'm prone to going radio silent for like. years. 
> 
> enjoy!

Billy’s going to lose his fucking mind.

It’s been four days since Steve’s fucking father decided to come back home, and he’s spending every minute of these time waiting for the other shoe to drop. Because come on, there’s so fucking way that forty-something suburban dad from Indiana discovered his son is a faggot and not flip his shit.

And yet.

Richard Harrington is acting like there’s nothing out of the ordinary. He spends most of the day in his study or in the living room, mostly ignoring them- ignoring him, since Steve’s at work every day and Billy doesn’t have a shift at garage until Wednesday. So, he’s mostly hiding in Steve’s room, only coming out to cook and smoke.

He’s going fucking crazy.

He can’t go for a ride, since Neil’s still keeping the Camaro hostage. Can’t watch TV because he doesn’t want to be heard. He’s making five fucking meals every day like a good little housewife or some shit and serving them to Steve’s weird father.

Every time he puts a plate in front of a man he expects this is it. He will look at him with disgust, tell him to get the fuck out of his house, throw a plate at his head.

But it never happens.

Richard will smile at him, thank him for the dinner, and go back to his work, whatever it is. Finances, Steve said. After Sunday, nobody brought up anything about Neil. Richard didn’t even ask about his last name.

Steve’s pent-up too, but he gets to get out, talk to his little dyke friend at work, the nerd are probably coming there too.

Nobody comes by the house.

Billy can’t get out.

Well, he could, but he’s too paranoid. He’s scared that if he goes out for the walk, he’ll meet Neil. Or that when he comes back, Neil’s gonna be here because Richard would call him, tell him to get his useless faggot son back and out of his pristine house.

Steve tells him that his dad wouldn’t. That yeah, he’s pretty shitty father, but he’s a decent person and definitely against fathers beating his kids black and blue.

Billy tells him he’s exaggerating.

Steve reminds him that Billy started living with him after Neil broke his ribs the day after Billy get out of the hospital after the Starcourt disaster.

Billy’s quiet. Let Steve do most of the talking, not that Richard listening to him. It’s obvious, that he doesn’t care at all what his son has to tell him. He hums agreeably from time to time, nods his head, but never looks up from his papers. Sometimes he chimes up with some bullshit about finding a better job for Steve at his company or maybe pulling some strings, so he can get admitted to the college.

Steve spills orange juice all over the table when he hears that, angry and frustrated.

Richard only picks up his papers, so they don’t get wet, sighs heavily.

Billy doesn’t know what to do.

After that dinner, they go to Steve’s room, and sit in silence until Steve burst. ‘I know I have to sound like the most spoiled little shit you’ve ever met because he’s so chill about you know- us. But God, I just wish he would react in- any way. To anything!’

‘No, I get it’ Billy mumble around an unlit cigarette. ‘It’s frustrating as hell, even as an observer. You must be losing your mind.’

They talk some more after that, mostly about some stupid shit. Who’s Robin crushing at. What are nerds doing. How’s Max.

They don’t fuck because it’s weird as hell with Steve’s dad down the hall. They barely kiss.

*

After four days of Billy’s cooking, there’s no much food left in the house. He could send Steve shopping, but Harrington somehow manages to turn him brain completely off every time he enters a grocery shop. He’s going to forget half of the things Billy needs and it’s going to fuck up he’s meal plan for the week.

God, he sounds pathetic. Never mind.

He takes some of his cash with heavy heart. He’d rather save it up, spend only some on smokes and weed and cheap beer, and even cheaper pizza, but he guesses it’s only fair to pay for food if he’s living it rent-free. Billy sits at the top of the stairs for a few minutes, waiting for Richard to end his phone call.

‘Mr. Harrington?’ he asks, peeking his head into the living room, now completely transformed into a man’s office. Billy doesn’t understand why get a home office if you’re not going to use it. ‘I’m going grocery shopping, do you want me to get you anything specific?’

Richard looks and him briefly and smiles tightly. ‘No, thank you, Billy, whatever you’re cooking will be fine with me’ he says. He looks like he barely registered that, but something had to bug him because as Billy was at the door, he stopped him. ‘You don’t have a car, right? You should take the Mercedes’ he said, honest-to-god handing Billy the keys.

What the fuck.

This feels like test, and they don’t usually end very good for Billy.

He clears his throat. ‘Mr. Harrington, sir. Listen. I don’t think you want to be giving keys to your very expensive car to me. I don’t think you want people knowing you’re letting me stay here. And I- I don’t want me being here to affect Steve in any way or-‘

Richard looks in the eyes and sighs. He’s doing it a lot.

‘Son, I’m not going to cut off Steve if you put some scratches on the car, or whatever you’re imaging right now. You don’t have to take it, it’s just going to be way more efficient if you do don’t you think?’

Billy really understand what Steve meant when he said he just wished to get any reaction out of his father. This man is infuriating.

He nods. Takes the keys.

As he’s closing the door behind him, Richard says, ‘If you need money for the groceries, there should be cash in the glove department.’

Hell.

*

There was a lot of cash in the glove box, actually. Billy didn’t touch any of it. Drove Mercedes as carefully as he could, didn’t even play any music. Richard seemed as sincere as he always does, but it all screams ‘trap’. He’s still not to keen to fall for it.

Billy tries to ignore people staring when he loads his groceries into the trunk of the shining Benz. Smokes three cigarettes in a row before getting back in. If anyone has a problem he’s going to say that he shops for rich fuckers as a part job. That seems like something people from Loch Nora would pay for. Briefly wonders if he could really make some money out of it, but it would acquire a lot of going out. Hawkins too small, at some point he would run into Neil. He still dreads the day he shows up at the garage to get something in his car done.

He’s pretty sure Hopper asked Benny to keep Neil away from him, but still.

Driving back to Harrington’s house puts him on ease. Nothing happened, the car is in great condition, nobody bothered him. He managed to get everything from the list. He even plays the radio, because of course Richard doesn’t have any tapes in his car.

It’s fucking stupid to think his day is gonna be easy like this.

Of course shit goes down.

*

He’s just gotten last back out of the car’s trunk, when the commotion down the street got his attention. Fuck. Kid Byers was sprinting towards Harrington’s house like he was running for his life, Daniel fucking Collins just a few steps behind him, his nose bleeding.

Billy has just a time to consider, if maybe teaching nerds how to throw a punch wasn’t his brightest idea, before they’re just beside him, and he doesn’t have a time to think about consequences anymore.

He drops his bag of groceries and turns on his heel, gripping Collins’ collar. Junior’s eyes widen in fear as Billy puts on his meanest face. Will doesn’t stop until he can lean on Harrington’s door.

‘Wha-’ Collins manages, before Billy slams him into the Benz.

‘The fuck is wrong with you, Collins? You chase little kids often?’ he sneers, pushing at the back of his neck a little harder, blood smearing over the car paint.

Collins flays his hands, but doesn’t try to get up. Fucking pussy. ‘Little bitch broke my fucking nose’ he screeches.

Billy snorted. ‘If your nose was broken, you’d be crying a lotta more. Besides, ‘am supposed to feel bad for you? If that scrawny kid managed to broke your fucking nose, you got no one to blame but yourself, fuckface.’ He forced Collins to stand up and looked him straight in the eyes, never releasing his neck from his dead grip. ‘Now get the fuck away from here and leave Byers alone, capish?’

Released, Collins nodded, spitted and got lost as instructed.

Good.

Billy planned on checking on Byers and giving him a drive home, but the second he turned toward the house, his stomach dropped.

Of course fucking Richard was standing on the porch, next to sheepish Byers, looking right at him, with that usual blank expression of his.

Fuck.

All this time, Billy was on his best behavior, at least when interacting with Richard. But now, with adrenaline coursing through his veins, right after showing his true colors, he didn’t like his chances on all this not ending in a disaster.

Will was speaking quietly, as Billy jogged to them.

‘-and they’re picking on me kinda a lot, so I- I did punch him, but then didn’t know what to do, so- and we hang out at Steve’s a lot, sorry- I don’t know if it’s okay-’

‘Sorry, sir’ he interrupted the kid’s babbling. ‘Will’s one of the kids Steve babysits sometimes. Bullies get vicious sometimes, so I intervened’ he winced. ‘I will clean your car. If that’s okay.’

Byers glanced at him, surprised, as Billy ran a hand through his hair, hoping he doesn’t look like a violent maniac. But. Old habits die hard.

Richard hummed. Honestly, fuck that guy.

‘You boys come in. I’m going to make coffee.’

Billy’s hands itched. What the fuck does that meant for him. He nodded. ‘You okay, Byers?’ he asked, instead of doing anything that he would immediately regret, opting for messing up the kid’s hair.

He pulled a face but then smiled a bit. ‘Yeah, he didn’t like, punch me or anything, just said some stuff.’

‘Yeah?’ Billy hummed, steering Byers away from the still unusable living room into the kitchen, when Richard was currently staring at coffee maker like it personally victimized him. Jesus Christ, rich folks. ‘Like what?’

‘Oh, you know’ Will mumbled, dropping his bag under the table, slouching on the chair, shooting suspicious looks at Richard’s back. ‘Usual stuff. How my mom's crazy and I’m a faggot and Johnathan is weird. So I got. Angry. Scared. I don’t know. And. Maybe punched him.’

Billy couldn’t help but laughed.

‘Yeah, you get him good, kid’ he said.

Walked to Richard, took coffee from him. ‘You can sit down, Mr. Harrington. I will make coffee.’

Richard immediately looks relieved and also like he was just waiting for a good moment to start talking. Okay, here goes nothing. He busies himself with Harrington’s fancy coffee maker as a man talks.

‘I’m happy you’re safe, young man’ he says – oh God, that’s going to be a lecture, ‘but you shouldn’t resort to violence, especially unprovoked.’

Billy’s shoulders are tight, and he imagines Will’s glaring from under his fringe.

‘However’ Richard continuous, ‘I understand that words can be as hurtful as fists, so I can’t blame you for your reaction. You’re a Joyce son, correct? Does your mom know that these boys bother you at school?’

‘I mean, yeah, but not like everything? I don’t want her to worry, she already- I mean it’s not like there’s a lot she can do either way. She’ll want to call school or something like that, and it’ll only make things worse, you know.’

As Billy looked over his shoulder, he’d seen Richard nodding sympathetically, even though Billy was pretty sure that he absolutely did _not_ know.

*

Richard insisted on driving Will home himself, even after Billy offered to do it. He was gone for way longer than it took to go to Byers’ house and back, his coffee now completely cold, and Billy unable to drink it.

Billy imagined Collins’ blood drying on the car paint. He was forcing himself not to freak out. Why was it so hard? Why the fuck it unsettled him so much, that Richard proved once again, that he’s a decent man? He didn’t even raise his voice once, he was nice to Byers, seemed more concerned about the kid’s safety that the fight.

God, Billy was fucked up.

He was pacing in the backyard, smoking, when he heard car pulling up in the driveway. His heart rate spiked, as get back in the house, determined to act normally.

He didn’t succeed, flexing his arms constantly.

Fuck it.

‘Mr. Harrington’ he said, startling the man, who seemed ready to go straight back to his paperwork. ‘Can we talk?’

Richard looked at him thoughtfully, gesturing at one of the few chairs that was not full of documents and cases and what-not.

‘Ah, yes. It was brought to my attention, that we should.’

Oh, for Christ’s sake, Joyce. She tended to be a little overprotective about Billy, for some reason he could not comprehend. It was- disturbing. He was definitely _not_ used to this kind of attention from women.

‘So. Look. Sir. I’m very grateful that you let me stay here’ Billy said. ‘And that you’re surprisingly cool about the gay thing. Really, this is- I’m grateful. Steve’s too.’ Richard just nodded, looking at him attentively. ‘But, listen. You’re very hard to read. I know how to read people’ he continued, wincing a little. Fuck, this was definitely outside his area of expertise, ‘but I have no idea what you’re thinking. Like, at all. And- I don’t want to sound ungrateful-’

He was going in circles. It was a relief, when Richard raised his hand a little.

‘Son, let me interrupt you. I will be completely honest – I don’t really know what to think. I definitely never envisioned my son being in- a relationship with a man. But I realized it, I may have imagined Steve living the same life I did and never stopped to see what kind of man he was becoming. I don’t mean it in negative way!’ he placated, after Billy tensed at his words. ‘I just assumed Steve will be happy going to college, marring right after and coming to work for me. I didn’t even occur to me, that maybe he’s like to shape his own path. I was never ambitious like that’ Richard chuckled, the first sign of real emotion, that Billy seen in him. ‘But well, college isn’t for everyone and marriage-’

Billy interrupted him, ‘He hates when you say that.’

That seemed to startle Richard. ‘That- college is not for everyone? Well, that’s true, I just mean that-’

‘I don’t know what you mean’ Billy cut him off once again, feeling really brazen. ‘And he doesn’t either. And you can mean well, but when you say that, when you talk about pulling strings and getting him a job, he just fells like liability. Like he thinks that he won’t manage anything on his own and you have to step in every time and tell him how to live his life.’ He lets his voice get louder as he gets worked up about this. Can’t stop talking even when there’s sour taste in his mouth as there’s voice screaming in his head that he’s fucking it up for Steve, that it’s gonna end up badly. ‘So if you seriously care or whatever you should fu- fucking tell him that. And Jesus Christ, listen to him when he talks to you. You barely look at him at all. And if it’s my fault I get- go, but I don’t think it is because he told me it was always like that.’

Billy doesn’t yell, but it gets close. After delivering what feels like years of talking looking straight into Richard’s eyes he looks away. Staring at the wall, every one of his muscles impossibly tense. The other man finally loses some of his carefully neutral expression, slouches in his chair a little, little grimace twisting his lips.

‘Fuck. Sorry. Sir.’ Billy says, as he imagines what will Richard say next. Something about him showing his true colors, how he can’t allow someone like him in his house, around his son, how he’s a disrespectful trash- Billy images Neil backhanding him so hard he stumbles to the floor, delivering a kick straight into his liver, he imagines-

‘Billy.’ His eyes snap back to Steve’s dad, whose expression is more open that he’d ever seen, who also look somehow older. ‘You’re not in trouble for saying any of these. I’m grateful you did. Mrs. Byers expressed similar opinions when I talked with her today.’

Billy fucking snaps.

Stands up so abruptly that the chair he was sitting on topples down and marched out.

He’s shaking, but he is not crying, even if his eyes are wet. Lights up a cigarette. Punches a wall.

Ends up sitting on the ground, puffing out smoke through clenched teeth. What the fuck is wrong with him?

He doesn’t find an answer to this question, but after a second smoke manages to put himself together. He’s finally calm even if this is the first time he has a reason not to be. 

When he finally comes back, Richard raised the chair and poured two glasses of whiskey. He’s smoking.

‘My wife doesn’t approve of smoking inside’ he says, conversationally, but gestures at the pack of Camels, sitting at the table between ashtray and two glasses.

‘Does she approve of underage drinking?’ Billy asks, his voice stupidly hoarse. Like he was screaming. He’s pretty sure he wasn’t. But he takes the whiskey as he sits down.

Richard only smiles as that.

They sit in a silence for a moment until Billy can’t take it no more. ‘I’m sorry. For the chair. For snapping.’ He adds after a beat, ‘Sir.’

Richard looks away, taking a long drag of his cigarette, and then he starts talking. ‘There’s no need to be sorry. I realize now, that I am the one who is responsible for the situation here. I mean that I was clearly away for so long, that at this moment I am an intruder in this house. No, please’ he stops Billy as he tries to argue. ‘I am, and like I said – that’s no one’s fault but mine. I am an intruder in the space you and Steve have here, and it’s no wonder you feel unease. I was trying to put myself out of the way, but I see I get to it completely wrong. I will try my best to talk to you both more openly. And I will definitely speak with Steve. And I-’ Something warm shows in his eyes. ‘I will pay more attention.’

The man leaned a bit and clinked his glass with Billy’s. For a few minutes, they drank in silence.

‘Okay’ Billy finally says, as whiskey course through his system. ‘So you’re not going to decide that you won’t me near Steve and call my dad, right?’

He meant it kinda jokingly, but Richard doesn’t laugh.

‘Right’ he says, soberly.

*

When Steve get backs home, they’re on their third glass of whiskey.

Bucky slouches in the chair like he owns the place.

They have _a small talk_. It’s weirdest fucking thing Billy experienced in his life, and he experienced interdimensional monsters, not so long ago. Still, Richard Harrington acting like they’re drinking buddies or whatever the fuck, even though he knows perfectly well that Billy’s sleeping with his son and telling him _anecdotes_ from _work_ beats all that shit.

He’s so busy trying not to make a crass joke, he doesn’t even register footsteps until Steve’s loud ‘What the fuck?’ makes him turn around.

Steve looks completely bewildered, as he hangs out in the doorway.

‘Hello son!’ Richard says, and yeah, he’s definitely also at least tipsy. ‘How was your day at work?’

Steve stares. ‘Good. It was- it was okay. I see yours was way better. Billy, can we-’ he gestured vaguely in the direction of his room.

Before Billy gets to respond, Richard stands up. ‘I’m going to let you boys have a house for yourselves for a few hours. I can’t remember when was the last time I had a walk in Hawkins.’ At that, he picks up his jacket, smiles as Steve and leaves.

Great, now Billy has to explain everything, he thinks, but doesn’t really feel angry.

‘Pretty boy’ he purrs instead, standing up and gripping Steve’s shirt, dragging him into a kiss. ‘Wanna fuck?’

Steve splutters at that, but his hips buck up, and he puts his arms around Billy’s waist, pulling their bodies flush together. ‘Won’t you tell me what the fuck happened today?’ he asks.

‘I will’ Billy promises. ‘After I suck your dick.’

**Author's Note:**

> if you liked it please leave kudos, if you hated it - tell me why!
> 
> also: if you think that there's a tag that would suit this work, that I didn't think of - please let me know.


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